Discuss the practical use of Dramatica. Have questions about how throughlines should be used, how to create Complex Characters or even the various combinations of the 12 Essential Questions and how they will affect your story go here.

I feel that Relationship can be a good change if it is pluralized. When I have discussed the Impact Character role during meetings and emphasized the fact that it can be Impact Characters (IC), only the singular definition is accepted by most. If eyes have not already started to gloss over from having to think about their story to such a technical degree, I get looks of rejection when I explain that the IC can be more than one character... and usually a bit later in the meeting it has been followed by the question "what if I have more than one character functioning as the impact character?".

Hmmm. This is a tough one for me. I understand your point, and agree with it in principle, but I think the reality is that most people do not understand what an IC is, much less a group of separate players functioning in a story as the purveyors of the IC perspective.

That goes doubly for the Relationship throughline. It is tough enough for people to see the SS or MC/IC or RS (Relationship Story) throughline as a necessary part of the story. Multiple relationships that are all of a similar nature is even more difficult to wrap one's head around.

I'll have to think of a way to accommodate the multiples better.

Add definition for BACKGROUND.

Add definition for STORY TENDENCY.

Agreed. (Might have already been done.)

ARGUMENT / INEQUITY

I agree that these terms are toughies and off-putting. Most of the alternatives with which we have come up are to vague to be helpful. I think one of Dramatica's strengths (and weaknesses) is its specificity. I am not convinced that being indirect about the core concept of Dramatica overall is helpful. That said, I am interested in saying the same thing(s) in more digestible terms.

Dramatica comes with three basic templates: Short Story, Novel, and Screenplay. Each are independent of each other.

Short stories can become novels, novels can become screenplays... comic books and video games too, can become novels and screenplays.

I would like to see an interactive tiered template that would allow me to begin with a short story, guide me into creating that short story into a novel, then guide me into creating that novel into a screenplay, and guide me with additional options to create a graphic novel and video game.

Just upgraded to Lion. I'd completely forgotten that Dramatica Pro was a PPC-only application. Am I reading this correctly that an Intel version of (Mac) Dramatica won't be out until the end of the year?

I understand that major new versions take a long time, and due to unforeseen circumstances, can be pushed back years. I'm not complaining about that. But please forgive me for griping, would a compatibility release here & there be too much to ask for a $200 piece of software? The last version of Dramatica came out in 2007. A year after Apple stopped selling PPC Macs. Snow Leopard wouldn't even run on PPCs; PPC applications were only supported through an emulation layer.

Yeah, it's on me for not checking before I upgraded. But really, I think this is the only application I own that's not even a universal binary.

Apple made it clear they were dropping support for PowerPC apps at the beginning of the year. Your only solution now is a dual boot option. This link will help give you an idea: http://www.lifeintech.com/blog/2011/2/26/dual-boot-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-and-lion.html

Note that the instructions are for setting up the partition before installing Lion. You just need to setup a partition for Snow Leopard instead.

I think Dramatica Pro must be the only PowerPc app I have, as no others have ceased to work, or were updated In time for Lion. I might consider dual booting for Windows, but not to run just one Mac progam. For some reason I am optimistic that a beta will be availabke very soon.

Quicken - a major financial application for many - wasn't updated in time either. Lion is great so far, but I wished I had waited off on installing this first version - still feels like there are some big things they need to fix.

I've surfed a lot of fiction writing software and I keep coming back to Dramatica. I've invested a lot of time but it's worth it.

The things that I would REALLY want to see in the new DP6 are:1. word count- it might sound crazy but as a writer I love to pace myself. So if I could set a goal of 1,000 words it could tell me I had reached my goal. Great reinforcement.2.To be able to write my story within the program - word processor with thesaurus, spell check, etc.3. I already have pre-established forms I fill out for each of my books and would love a place - be it information, or templates - where I can make up my own form, fill it in, and have it ready at the click of a button. Maybe add another button as Reference

Until the new version arrives - I'll fill in my forms to get my feet wet, then head on over to Dramatica.

greay wrote:I understand that major new versions take a long time, and due to unforeseen circumstances, can be pushed back years. I'm not complaining about that. But please forgive me for griping, would a compatibility release here & there be too much to ask for a $200 piece of software?

I want to keep running Dramatica, but I'm in the same boat--in fact, I'm migrating to a new MacBook Air, which can't run OS X Snow Leopard at all.

My suspicion is that the Dramatica code base is very old and just getting it to that point required a lot of work, but... well. At least in theory, Dramatica became fully compliant with the Carbon API in order to run under Rosetta. While I know that porting between PPC Carbon and PPC Intel is not just clicking a checkbox in XCode, it's four years later after that "Carbonization" and now more than six months after we knew that Dramatica Pro 4.1 would not run under Lion. Unless a public beta of Dramatica Pro 5 is right around the corner, I'd gently urge a Lion-compatible maintenance release of 4.1 be pushed out as quickly as feasible.

We are in alpha testing on the Mac version of Dramatica Pro 5. This means we have a few last features to add, and then we'll be in Beta testing. One of the main reasons the Mac version is coming out before the Windows version is Lion. As you may or may not know, Dramatica Pro 4.1 does not run on Lion. Dramatica Pro 5 does run on Lion.

Not sure if I've made this one already, but I'd really like a keyboard option to save in incremental versions, such as Shift-S.

Example:

Existing way:Create a new Dramatica file.Go to File > Save As, and name the file a unique name such as MyStory.dsf.As I make modifications, I repeat that process and manually create new file names such as MyStory_v001.dsf, MyStory_v002.dsf, and so on.

Suggested way:Create a new Dramatica file.Go to File > Save As, and name the file a unique name such as MyStory.dsf.Press Shift-S to automatically save as MyStory_v001.dsf.Press Shift-S to automatically save as MyStory_v002.dsf and so on.

First time Dramatica user here. As this reply is so appropriately titled, just wondering if Dramatica Pro version 5.0 for mac is any closer to being completed?Even an approximate guesstimate would suffice at this point.

Just received a reply from sales and marketing in case someone other than myself was interested.

Thank you for your email. Dramatica Pro 5 is still in development andthey have not given us a release date. We are hoping to have it by thefirst quarter of 2012. Once we do have an actual release date we willpost it in our website and newsletter.

I'm so glad to see that Dramatica 5 is on the way. I've been working with Dramatica since before the last beta for Mac users back in 2004. I am very excited to see how the interface might have changed.